Upcoming Events

Over the years, TestFlight became a tool mobile app developers relied on. But parent company Burstly’s recent acquisition (by Apple) and termination of Android support has developers looking for alternatives.

Getting your beta to testers with ease is important. But some platforms, particularly iOS, make the process a hassle.

There are many predictions about Apple’s future plans for TestFlight. But for now we’ll focus on TestFlight alternatives for iOS, Android, and Windows developers.

Even though Appaloosa has a funny name, it means business. They make it easy to share betas internally or with a private group. Appaloosa targets enterprise app developers, but there’s no reason a small team couldn’t use it.

Appaloosa is also multi-platform and available for iOS, Android, and Windows devices.

Beta Builder is bare bones compared to TestFlight. As with TestFlight, you can distribute apps over the air but without a fancy interface. Unlike TestFlight, enterprise ad-hoc distribution is free. You can even limit beta testing in-house to prevent security issues.

The bad news is Beta Builder is available only for iOS apps. It also has a Mac app you can buy for an optional donation of $10.00; otherwise it’s free.

If you’re developing an Android-only app, it may be easier to stick with the Google Play Console. The slew of built-in features and access to a pool of testers via G+ communities make beta testing simple.

With all the alternatives available choose something you’ll love for a while. Maybe Apple will improve TestFlight, bring it back to Android (doubt it), or drop it altogether. Only time will tell.

Since we can’t predict the future, consider making one of the above options your favorite app beta tool.

So what’s your favorite testing tool from the list? What alternatives are you using now?

Ashli Norton is a co-founder of Joppar. Joppar makes tools that help developers make better mobile apps. Ashli also maintains a huge list of 200 (and counting) resources for mobile developers.